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Conflict in Gansu (1927-1931)
The Conflict in Gansu (1927-1931), also known as the Hezhou-Huangyuan Incident, or simply the Hezhou Incident was a conflict in Gansu during the Northern Expedition, which involved the entire Northwest region(provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang). Despite the conflict occurring in several bordering provinces at various points, the majority of the conflict occurred in Gansu. The general conflict most prominently refers to the Hezhou Incident which includes the religious conflict in Hezhou in August 1928. However, further conflicts occurred in another Incident at the same location in December of the same year, and the later Liangzhou Incident in Dcember 1930. Specifically, this second Incident refers to the incident which took place from December 1928 to March 1929. This incident in particular indicated the tension between the Guominjun and the Ma clique, as well as the lack of knowledge about the civil condition in the northwest region, and the flaws in their violent governance. The incident caused the Guominjun to assign a detachment to the Northwest. This affected the result of the Shuntian-Zhili Campaign and thus the greater outcome of the Northern Expedition. Background After the Battle of Nankou in 1926, the Guominjun retreated to the Northwest and prepared to fight again. Feng Yuxiang dispatched Ma Fuxiang and Ma Hongkui to enter Ningxia through Suiyuan. At the time, the Gansu Ma Clique still held a grudge on Ma Fuxiang’s choice to leave Gansu for Suiyuan during the dispute for Gansu’s governorship. He was reluctant to join the Guominjun but accepted the reorganization to be a part of it under the sway of Ma Lin and others. Yet his allegiance was only in form and name, Ma kept the ways of a local clique. The Guominjun couldn’t resolve the problem in the Northwest due to the continuous campaigns of the Northern Expedition. In August 1928, the old and new church of Islam in Hezhou broke into conflict. The old church relied on Ma Guoliang(uncle of Ma Tingrang) as the leader of the Gansu Ma Clique. While the new church was backed by the Qinghai Ma Clique including Ma Lin. Both sides would not yield to compromise and this led to several engagements which destabilized the region. At the time, the Northern Expedition was in quite an urgent, the decision by the Guominjun to distribute the military expense burden to the Northwestern provinces caused further discontent. Ma Lin and Ma Tingrang were already concerned about Guominjun’s entry to the Northwest, hoping to retaliate against the Guominjun with this opportunity. Ma Lin also kept contact with the Fengtian clique in secret, however as the Fengtian clique army lost both the Campaign of Western Shandong and the Shuntian-Zhili Campaign, thus it was proven futile. In August, when Ma Lin returned to his hometown in Hezhou, he hinted in a conversation with local youth that the “Guominjun lied to us Muslims and tried to eradicate our religion. Should we just to get butchered under their pressure? Ain’t no that would stand up to fight. If I could be young once more I’m would put up a fight with those Guominjun!”, trying to instigate some issue and act accordingly. Yet on August 30th, Ma Zhongying’s father, Ma Bao was beaten to death by a Guominjun officer. As a result, Ma Zhongying, a young man of Ma Lin’s family decided to provoke an incident, which put the Qinghai Ma Clique in an embarrassing situation. Hezhou Incidence In September 1928, Ma Zhongying raised a band mainly consisted of refugees and deserters, claiming to want to avenge his father, and began attacking Guominjun convoys under the instructions of Ma Lin. To clear off the suspicion, Ma Lin and others supported Ma Zhongying by secretly providing equipment and soldiers. In December, Ma Zhongying’s force expanded to roughly 30,000 men strong, appointing himself as the “High Commander of the ‘Army of Black Tiger that Strikes Feng’”, proclaiming that they “Harm no Hui (Chinese Muslims) no Han, only targeting the Guominjun officers”. Leading his forces and the subsequent besieging of Hezhou, caused the Hezhou Incidence. Ma Zhongying did not implement discipline after Hezhou was breached, instead he let his men loose to raid and rape, leading to a nation wide shock. Feng Yuxiang deployed commanders including Liu Yufen, Zhao Xipin, and Sun Lianzhong into the Northwest to stabilize the situation. Ma Lin and Ma Tingrang had to change their stand to suppress Ma Zhongying under the pressure. To clear the suspicion, again, Ma Tingrang volunteered to convince Ma Zhongying to surrender. On December 19th, Ma Tingrang’s subordinate Ma Quanqin engaged Ma Zhongying, he was shouted at, the latter claimed that “You all gained the fame and accomplishment with the heads of my people at the end years of the Qing!”, silencing Ma Quanqin, as he has no answer. Ma Quanqin’s soldiers knew Ma Zhongying, and also became distressed by the tax burden caused by Guominjun’s entry to Gansu. This led Ma Quanqin’s men to mutiny, forcing him to run back to the main force. After this incident, Liu Yufen began to doubt that Ma Tingrang was supporting Ma Zhongying in secret, causing the tension between Guominjun and Ma Tingrang to get worse. In February 1929, the Guominjun dispatched 3 divisions under Sun Lianzhong, Ji Hongchang and other commanders to eradicate Ma Zhongying’s army. Ma could not rival the Guominjun detachment and retreated to Qinghai, committing another massacre in Minqin on the way. In March, Ma retreated to Inner Mongolia, and the Guominjun failed to catch up. Afterwards, including Ma Lin, Ma Tingxian and several others still aided Ma Zhongying. The latter also had contact with the Fengtian clique and even the Japanese. The Hezhou Incidence came to an end. Liu Yufen started to manage the affairs in Northerwest China. Liangzhou Incidence May 1929, Liu Yufen asked to borrow fund from Ma Tingrang, the latter still held the grudge over some personnel arrangement and did not lend the money, causing the gap between the two got even worse. September, Zhao Xipin was appointed a delegation office in Hezhou, the origin of Ma Lin and the lot, who held some complain against the appointment of Zhao, yet couldn’t act due to the difference in military strength. November 1930, Liu Yufen’s chief of staff Yang Guangyuan was killed by bandits. Liu suspected that Ma Tingrang was the instructor behind the curtain, and as he considered that Ma Tingrang feared the Guominjun, his meager force possesses no threat, thus ordered his subordinate Liu Zhiyuan to revenge. On 24th, Liu Zhiyuan arrived in Liangzhou and ordered a break-in into Ma Tingrang’s residence, confiscating the latter’s property, causing Ma fled to Xining in rush. Under the promise and support from Ma Lin, Ma Tingrang gathered his leftover forces and decided to retaliate the Guominjun. December 2nd, Ma Tingrang led the remaining force attacked Liangzhou, this event was referred as the Liangzhou Incident. Due to the lack of defense, the city was fallen soon after the battle began. Ma Tingrang butchered Guominjun officials to relieve his rage. Ma Zhongying conducted a counterattack as soon as he learned the incident, and ravaged all horses and arms from Ma Hongbin’s residence, then reside in Ganzhou, Suzhou. Guominjun failed to manage any timely response as Feng Yuxiang’s finance faced a crisis. January 1931, Sun Lianzhong came to an agreement with Ma Lin, the latter will strike Ma Tingrang and Ma Zhongying’s rebel, while Sun would “Let those of the past be washed away” through this arrangement. February, the two sides engaged in Wuwei. Ma Lin held the strategy of steady as they go, implying Feng to give a better bargain. March 10th, Ma Lin and Feng Yuxiang came to another term, Feng promised to attend the equipment and military expenditure, Ma Lin then sent Ma Bufang to surround the rebels. March 29th, Ma Tingrang was defeated and then executed. Ma Zhongying retreated to the west, while Guominjun also redeployed away. April, Ma Zhongying divided his alleged 30,000 force into seven detachments and entered Xinjiang. At the same time the Hami revolt was striving, Yulbars went to Gansu for aid and met Ma Zhongying’s forces, they combined their armies and went on to Hami, defeating Ma Bufang’s ambush on the way yet relation between the two was worsen. Ma Bufang called off his pursue, ending the Liangzhou Incident. Result As Ma Tingrang and Ma Zhongying were all defeated in turn, the Ma’s clique is finally aware that they cannot face the Guominjun, thus taking a submitting attitude. While one of the original plotter, Ma Lin died due to illness soon after Hezhou Incidence, Ma Bufang executed those in his ranks who supported Ma Zhongying to cover up, Qinghai Ma Clique successfully hidden the evidence of once aiding Ma Zhongying. Sun Lianzhong, desiring to stabilize Qinghai, decided to turn a blind eye. In the end, the proudest of the Ma’s clique, the Gansu Ma Clique was thoroughly eradicated, while the Qing’s Ma submitted to Guominjun, in form only. Affected by this incident, Guominjun adapted the advice from those like Sun Lianzhong and Ji Hongchang, decided to implement the strategy of Exploiting the Vast Northwest to resolve the crisis they faced. However, as the Qinghai Ma Clique still possess a great lot of power after the incident while their own faction blended into the system, Guominjun faced a lot of restraint in implementing their policies. The tension between Ma Bufang and Sun Lianzhong was even worse than before. After the failure in the Northwest, Ma Zhongying then turned the razing war to Xinjiang, joining the Hami revolt and stayed away from the nation’s central region. However, neither Ma or the new provincial chairman Zhang Peiyuan had any interest in Xinjiang, both sides refrained from engagement after some scarce battle. This only brought more conflict between Ma Zhongying and Yulbars.